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Editor’s note: You can now find the Bistrocast on iTunes to subscribe and hear new episodes as we release them.

Orange Silicon Valley launched an all-new podcast series in August, offering a platform for getting to know more about OSV analysts and their work with connective technologies. The Bistrocast will explore a variety of topics that OSV is researching and interested in, focusing on technology trends, as well as examining how new technologies can be implemented.

The Bistrocast features commentary directly from OSV experts about their fields of study, research, and other work. It offers insights into their current areas of interest and topics that are driving innovation.

The Bistrocast’s first two episodes feature Mike Vladimer and Will Barkis, who work with the Internet of Things (IoT) and Smart Cities programs, respectively. Mike and Will introduced their programs, their scopes of work, and where they see technology going in the future. Below are just a handful of highlights from these first two Bistrocast episodes. Listen to the full episodes in the embedded audio players, and watch for more episodes to come very soon.

Mike Vladimer on the essence of IoT

“IoT is comprised of four things: sensors, connectivity, computation, and user interface. It used to be too expensive to build IoT products, but all aspects of it have dropped so much in price that IoT can now exist. What used to be impossible is now technologically feasible and economically affordable. An IoT product should not be aimed at trying to solve everything all at once, but rather be the best in its specific area of specialty. IoT should be used to analyze niche issues.”

How can we differentiate/ categorize IoT products?

Mike identifies two types of IoT, which he labels IoT 1.0 and IoT 2.0. IoT 1.0 has the mentality of, “if we can IoT-ify it, let’s IoT-ify it.” People are IoT-ifying products, but when we add up how much value is created for how many people, it’s not game-changing. IoT 2.0 is, “let’s be creative, let’s be imaginative let’s not just IoT-ify solutions to existing problems. Let’s solve problems we could never solve before.”

The importance of IoT, and how it can help us for the future

Mike believes we’re living in a fundamental paradigm shift around data and he’s working to find compelling problems that data can solve. People say data is the new oil. If you ask the question, “What was the meaning of fossil fuels for humanity?” he argues that it was unlimited access to power. Anything that you wanted power to do before fossil fuels was probably prohibited, and now you can do it. Data is all about understanding what’s happening. IoT can help us work though these problems with all of the data it’s collecting.

Will Barkis on defining Smart Cities

“What is needed for a smart city is based on the local problem space. There’s an element of human-centric design, and a user-centric focus. That is a universal thing as far as the outwardly facing smart cities applications are concerned. Smart Cities have three essential pieces: data, connectivity, and collaboration. Smart Cities will be around for a long time because they work towards something that brings data in, and takes action with that given information.”

Examples of recent Smart Cities innovations

“We’re seeing things like street lights being deployed. San Diego is doing a project on LED lights,” Will explained. “The reason to put them in is because of energy efficiency, we aren’t putting as many lightbulbs in. We’re going to have air quality sensors to oversee the health of our community. There are kiosks in New York that have stands with ports to charge your phone or have touch screen information about the city. These are replacing telephone booths. These are two good examples because they have business models that can support them and build future infrastructure.”

– –

Colette Wright is
an Editorial Production Intern
at
Orange Silicon Valley.

Smart Cities is a category that gets applied to many different technologies, and Will Barkis knows about how it’s treated in a variety of contexts. In this discussion, he describes interesting pilot projects that he has observed, as well as what he has learned about the policy side of Smart Cities tech, thanks to his time working with the mayor’s office in San Francisco.

In the age of Internet-connected devices, data-gathering capabilities have never been more abundant, and in the age of big data there is a premium being placed on technology that can make sense of the data that’s available and to delight users. Mike Vladimer, who co-founded the Internet of Things-focused IoT Studio at Orange Silicon Valley,

Hurricanes Irma and Harvey brought a wake-up call from Mother Nature to all of us who work on Internet of Things (IoT) and Smart Cities — reminding us even with all that cool tech like smart lighting, smart buildings, connected parking, and smart-fill-in-the-blank, Gaia still holds sway. Now that She has our attention, let’s bow

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About Orange Silicon Valley

Orange Silicon Valley (OSV) is the San Francisco Bay Area presence of Orange, one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators. We actively engage with San Francisco and Silicon Valley, and participate in the disruptive innovations changing the way we communicate.